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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: An Art Book
In his graphic biography Nick Mercy on Me , Reinhard Kleist paints an expressive and enthralling portrait of the musician, novelist, poet, and actor. It is, according to Nick Cave himself, “a complex, chilling and completely bizarre journey into Cave World.” Nick Cave & The Bad An Art Book collects Kleist’s moody and expressive portraits of the musician and his band, spanning 30 years of writing, recording, and live performance. Kleist also returns readers to Cave’s imaginative world with comic book reimaginings of “Deanna,” “The Good Son,” and “Stagger Lee.” Filled with visual delights, this record-size art book is a kaleidoscopic portrait of Nick Cave’s wide-ranging career as a storyteller, musician, and cultural icon.
96 pages, Hardcover
Published September 25, 2018
About the author
Reinhard Kleist
35 books116 followersBorn in 1970 near Cologne.
After school he had an internship at printing and publishing Landpress in Weilerswist Studium at the College of Visual Arts in Münster. There the albums "Lovecraft", "Dorian" and "adventure of a switchman" were created.
After graduation in 1996 he moved to Berlin.
where he worked in a studio. For some years he did workshops, lectures and exhibitions in countries like Mexico, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Jordan, Algeria, Spain, Canada and others, at the invitation of the Goethe Institute or my foreign publishers.
In December 2013, as part of a project for ARTE, he was in a refugee camp in northern Iraq where he I did interviews with Syrian refugees. He did a lot of sketches, and did two workshops with children. The results and photos from the workshop can be seen at ARTE Refugees
In 2011 his comic strip "The Boxer" was published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which was published in May 2012 in a revised version as a book by Carlsen Verlag.
In 2015, "The Dream of Olympia", the story of Samia Yusuf Omar, was published by Carlsen Verlag and in 2016 was awarded the "Annual Lynx" and the Catholic Children and Youth Book Prize.
After school he had an internship at printing and publishing Landpress in Weilerswist Studium at the College of Visual Arts in Münster. There the albums "Lovecraft", "Dorian" and "adventure of a switchman" were created.
After graduation in 1996 he moved to Berlin.
where he worked in a studio. For some years he did workshops, lectures and exhibitions in countries like Mexico, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Jordan, Algeria, Spain, Canada and others, at the invitation of the Goethe Institute or my foreign publishers.
In December 2013, as part of a project for ARTE, he was in a refugee camp in northern Iraq where he I did interviews with Syrian refugees. He did a lot of sketches, and did two workshops with children. The results and photos from the workshop can be seen at ARTE Refugees
In 2011 his comic strip "The Boxer" was published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which was published in May 2012 in a revised version as a book by Carlsen Verlag.
In 2015, "The Dream of Olympia", the story of Samia Yusuf Omar, was published by Carlsen Verlag and in 2016 was awarded the "Annual Lynx" and the Catholic Children and Youth Book Prize.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 5, 2019
Essentially a collection of artful caricatures of Nick Cave and company, drawing on, combining, and mythologising elements of both his life and his work. If you were thinking about a Nick Cave tattoo, this should probably be your first port of call.
July 24, 2020
If you are a fan, the art in this is fabulous!
April 28, 2020
This is an excellent coffee-table book, suited for anyone who is a fan of illustration, graphic novels, the work of Reinhard Kleist, or the work of Nick Cave.
The last two, in particular, those names, those artists in combination is such a stellar idea. Kleist's dark and gloomy images with the watery, messy lines of painted backgrounds behind the dark and thick lines with jokes hidden away in the margins perfectly match the music and mythos of Nick Cave. As one of the last rock stars still producing a sort of mythology of a character and narrative songs rather than being immediately forthright, he makes a perfect subject for a book such as this.
The images are sharp and commanding and match perfectly to the moments and songs they are mimicking or recreating. The change in Kleist's style as he jumps back and forth in time through Cave's varied career gives a real sense of time and place. And the graphic novel sections, which build imagistic narratives around Cave's sonic ones, are fun and shocking. This makes me terribly excited to read the Kleist/Cave semi-biography "Mercy on Me," which has been sitting on my shelf with begging eyes ever since I started this first.
The promise of large, glossy illustrations of Cave took my heart in ways I couldn't have expected. He is one of my favorite musicians and to see another person's interpretation of him and his work is beautiful, and seeing it done right, with pathos and humor and justice, is reassuring that Cave will always and forever be remembered as one of the greats.
The last two, in particular, those names, those artists in combination is such a stellar idea. Kleist's dark and gloomy images with the watery, messy lines of painted backgrounds behind the dark and thick lines with jokes hidden away in the margins perfectly match the music and mythos of Nick Cave. As one of the last rock stars still producing a sort of mythology of a character and narrative songs rather than being immediately forthright, he makes a perfect subject for a book such as this.
The images are sharp and commanding and match perfectly to the moments and songs they are mimicking or recreating. The change in Kleist's style as he jumps back and forth in time through Cave's varied career gives a real sense of time and place. And the graphic novel sections, which build imagistic narratives around Cave's sonic ones, are fun and shocking. This makes me terribly excited to read the Kleist/Cave semi-biography "Mercy on Me," which has been sitting on my shelf with begging eyes ever since I started this first.
The promise of large, glossy illustrations of Cave took my heart in ways I couldn't have expected. He is one of my favorite musicians and to see another person's interpretation of him and his work is beautiful, and seeing it done right, with pathos and humor and justice, is reassuring that Cave will always and forever be remembered as one of the greats.
January 8, 2022
A very cool collection of illustrations if Nick Cave in his many iterations and with his bands. I liked the illustrations of some of the songs and imaginings of Nick Cave as the protagonist in his songs.
July 9, 2018
An interesting insight into the stories behind the songs.
Great graphics create a true to life ambience of the band, the people and the music.
Great graphics create a true to life ambience of the band, the people and the music.
November 1, 2018
Just beautiful. Hard to do it justice with words, but then isn't that the point of art?
July 21, 2021
Keep going back to the most incredible images from an epic career.
Beautifully crafted and compiled.
Bliss.
Beautifully crafted and compiled.
Bliss.
May 4, 2025
This had tonnes of the gritty, quick drawn art that suits Nick Cave perfectly.
May 30, 2026
There's an Idées noires-esque vibe to Kleist's graphic biography of Cave that I really enjoy.
August 25, 2026
An absolutely riveting display of a life captured in moments.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews